ASIA. 51Ijumanis camibus bescentes, cruorem potantes, filii soytMa.Caini malebicti. f^os inclusit ©ominus per magnum^lexanbrum; nam terre motu facto in conspectu prin=cipis montes super monies in circuitu eorum cecibcrunt:ubi montes beerant, ipse eos muro insolubili cinxit. Isti inclusi ibem esse crebuntur qui a Solino ^ntro=popbagi bicuntur, inter quos et ^ssebones numcrantur:nam tempore ^ntiebristi erupturi ct omni munbo perse^cutionem illaturi. In this account the reader -wiU perceive the confusedmixture of sacred, profane, and purely legendary history.Its sources are the Book of the Apocalypse, and the authen¬tic history of Alexander, as perverted by Eastern tradition.The stoiy of Alexander and the wall is mentioned by S.Jerome. It appears in the Koran, but had long beforefound its way into Western Europe, and the AlexandrianEomance, so often mentioned, was its legitimate descendant.The cannibal propensities ascribed to the Scythian race arementioned by Herodotus, and afterwards by Mela and SoU¬nus. The reader -wiU also learn and appreciate the deriva¬tion of the word bijO, the name for the cold N.E. -wind soacutely felt from time to time in Europe, and known inFrench as the vent de bise, which our Map-maker, foUo-winghis authority ./Ethicus, assures us is derived from the speechof the MongoUan race, so much dreaded in Europe in the13th century. (Eev. xx. 2, 8, 9; Herod, iv. 106; Mela,ii 1; SoUn. 15, 13 ; Isid. ix. 2, 132; ^thic. 38, 41; Sale,Kor. c. xviu. p. 247 ; Weber, vol. i. 6188 ; Morley, p. 681;Diez, Lex. Etym. p. 54.) Near the above inscription are the towns:—SCTCScibitas, the supposed capital of the Seric region mentionedby Ptolemy, JuUus Honorius, and Isidore, but what placeis intended by them is uncertain (Ptol. vi 16, 8; Isid. xiv.